In a synchronised announcement Google and Fitbit have both blogged that the acquisition of Fitbit by Google is complete.
Fitbit President and co-founder James Park said in his announcement:
I’m writing today to let you know that Fitbit is now officially part of Google. It’s an incredibly exciting moment for us as a company and for our Fitbit community of users around the globe.
Park says that being part of Google will enable Fitbit to innovate faster and make better products that will work across both Android and iOS.
Addressing one of the key fears of Fitbit users he said:
“The trust of our users will continue to be paramount, and we will maintain strong data privacy and security protections, giving you control of your data and staying transparent about what we collect and why”.
“Google will continue to protect Fitbit users’ privacy and has made a series of binding commitments with global regulators, confirming that Fitbit users’ health and wellness data won’t be used for Google ads and this data will be kept separate from other Google ad data”.
“Google also affirmed it will continue to allow Fitbit users to choose to connect to third party services. That means you’ll still be able to connect your favorite health and wellness apps to your Fitbit account.”
He emphasized that the acquisition was about devices not data and Fitbit user data would be kept private.
He also repeated Park’s promise that Fitbit devices would continue to work with other operating systems besides Android and remain able to connect with third-party fitness data analysis services.
Today, I’m excited to announce that Google has completed its acquisition of Fitbit and I want to personally welcome this talented team to Google.
We worked with global regulators on an approach which safeguards consumers’ privacy expectations, including a series of binding commitments that confirm Fitbit users’ health and wellness data won’t be used for Google ads and this data will be separated from other Google ads data.
These annoucements are somewhat preemptive and hopeful because US regulators and the ACCC in Australia are still considering the deals implications for competition and data sharing issues.
From an Australian perspective the ACCC isn’t expected to announce their decision until late March.
